This likely accounts for the apparent delay. The heavily-anticipated MLP:FiM season premiere is expected to draw a large audience, who may stick around for the Littlest Pet Shop premiere. Both shows are of interest to furry fans, as they feature anthropomorphic animal casts.

Plot synopses are already available for the MLP:FiM two part season premiere from Shout! Factory, set to release a DVD featuring the premiere on December 4. The Entertainment Weekly article teases further possible season three episodes, including an episode dealing with the topic of bullying and the return of "an unnamed, fan favorite villain".

Hubworld's The Littlest Pet Shop page reveals that the new show will revolve around a young girl who can talk to animals in the titular pet shop. At this point, the show is not highly anticipated among furry fans or general animation fans, but shows of this type have been known to garner incredibly loyal cult followings in the past.

That seems to be the opinion (and the safe money) on EQD; Queen Chrysalis is appearing in the comics, and Nightmare Moon is now a good guy ... or is she? There is supposed to be a Luna/Celestia relationship episode according to the rumor mill, so I'm not putting it past them. Though, if its a "flashback" episode, it could feature both Luna as Nightmare Moon and Discord (there is frequent fan speculation that Discord had something to do with Luna's transformation).

Oh, and "The Great and Powerful" Trixie is rumored to be reappearing, so that could also be the returning "villain," if you can call her that.

Personally, the rumor that most excites me is the "Manehattan episode" rumor; I want Applejack in a Midnight Cowboy parody so bad.

lol. "Both shows are of interest to furry fans, as they feature anthropomorphic animal casts." Its called being a Brony, and we are just fans of the show. Thats all. Nothing else. Just like Fox News. Do your research before you post an article.

And this is a news-site with a furry target audience, not a brony target audience. Your precious show is a mere pittance of our interests. And by the way, we're interested in the show, not you nor your culture. How's that for a fact?

While it's true that My Little Pony has had a following among furry fans for many years, it was a much smaller following than it was before Friendship is Magic came along. Different people like different things about shows that feature animal characters, and for some, the pre-G4 MLP had enough for them, while for many it was clearly lacking in areas where FiM succeeded. It just goes to show that anything featuring animals is going to attract the attention of at least a few furries, but you need things like good characterization and well-developed stories for it to become a major phenomenon in the furry fandom.

So, looks like the "returning villain" for MLP is going to be ... revealed a bit lower down so not to spoil it for you weirdos who think DVD covers and episode synopses are spoilers.

For now I'll say someone else can review the premiere; I plan on reviewing the DVD, so reviewing the same two episodes would be a bit redundant. I do actually plan on reviewing "The Littlest Pet Shop" premiere, because I'll be there anyway and why not? Also, I have a review of the first DVD collection plus the original MLP movie! My first retro review. Anyway, as soon as I can get them out, I will, but computer problems ... grumble, grumble.

Anyway, villain is Trixie. Wasn't much of a bad guy first time, but episode synopses says she's the episode villain; she definitely stepped up her villain game.